Wright v. City of Knoxville
| Decision Date | 17 April 1995 |
| Citation | 898 S.W.2d 177 |
| Parties | Tina WRIGHT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF KNOXVILLE, Defendant-Appellee, and Brian E. Anderson, Ronald E. Anderson and wife, Carol A. Anderson, Co-Defendants-Appellants. Brian E. ANDERSON, Ronald E. Anderson and wife, Carol A. Anderson, Cross-Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF KNOXVILLE, Cross-Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Edward M. Graves and Carl Winkles, Knoxville, for Tina Wright.
K. Dickson Grissom and George Underwood, Knoxville, for City of Knoxville.
James T. Shea, IV and Beecher A. Bartlett, Jr., Knoxville, for Brian Anderson, Ronald Anderson and Carol Anderson.
In this negligence case, which concerns an automobile accident involving a private car and a police cruiser, plaintiffs Tina Wright, Brian Anderson, Ronald Anderson, and Carol Anderson appeal from the Court of Appeals' reversal of the trial court's judgment. This judgment provided that both drivers were negligent; and it allocated 75% of the fault to the police officer and 25% to Brian Anderson, the driver of the private car. This appeal presents two issues for our determination: (1) was the Court of Appeals correct in reversing the trial court's judgment and holding that the police officer was not negligent; and (2) assuming that the Court of Appeals did err in so holding, did the trial court err in its allocation of fault between the parties.
The record reveals that on April 15, 1991, at about 4:30 in the afternoon, Officer Sherri Matlock of the Knoxville Police Department was traveling east on Kingston Pike when she received an emergency call to respond to "an accident with injuries" on Sutherland Avenue. Officer Matlock immediately turned on her siren and blue lights and continued on Kingston Pike toward the site of the accident. As she approached the intersection of Kingston Pike and Walker Springs Road (which runs north and south), Officer Matlock noticed that the traffic was extremely heavy and that the four eastbound lanes (two regular lanes and two left turn lanes) were stopped; the light was red for all lanes of Kingston Pike at this time. After bringing her vehicle to a stop behind several cars in the eastbound lanes, Officer Matlock crossed the center line of the road and drove, at approximately ten to fifteen miles per hour, in the westbound lane of Kingston Pike closest to the center line in order to circumvent the blocked intersection.
Meanwhile, the car driven by Brian Anderson, in which his girlfriend Tina Wright and his mother Carol Anderson were passengers, was stopped at the intersection's traffic light, facing northward on Walker Springs Road. Anderson was preparing to turn left onto Kingston Pike. Because his was the first car in line, Anderson proceeded into the intersection when the green turn arrow appeared. As he did so, Anderson heard a siren. Anderson either slowed or stopped his vehicle and began looking around in an attempt to locate the siren. Since he could not determine the location of the siren, and therefore did not know whether to stop or to keep driving, Anderson continued into the intersection. Just as Officer Matlock passed the lead car in the eastbound turning lane closest to the center line, the two vehicles collided in the westbound lane of Kingston Pike closest to the center line.
Anderson testified that because the police car was concealed behind four rows of cars in the eastbound lanes of Kingston Pike, he never saw it. Officer Matlock testified that she did not see Anderson's car until it was two car lengths away. There is substantial testimony in the record that neither vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed. There is also testimony that this particular intersection is one of the largest and most dangerous in the Knoxville area. It is undisputed that traffic was extremely heavy at the time of the accident.
Tina Wright brought an action against the City of Knoxville and Brian, Carol and Ronald Anderson (the father of Brian and husband of Carol) to recover for injuries sustained in the accident. The Andersons also brought an action against the City of Knoxville. After a nonjury trial, the trial court held that both Matlock and Anderson were negligent in operating their vehicles. The trial court's memorandum opinion provides, in pertinent part:
I think there is a responsibility on both sides here. The officer, because this is a very dangerous, big intersection, and the officer came up to the intersection and she saw that the lights were red for her and that the other traffic to her left was not moving and she should have realized that someone would have had the green light and also realized that because of the heavy traffic, it would be difficult for anybody to see anybody in this situation from the direction that the plaintiff vehicle was traveling. So I think there was a responsibility on both sides here.
The trial court then allocated 75% percent of the fault to Officer Matlock and 25% to Brian Anderson. The Court of Appeals, however, reversed that judgment, holding that Brian Anderson's actions were the sole proximate cause of the accident.
The Court of Appeals based its holding on three statutes. The first, Tenn.Code Ann. § 55-8-108, concerns the rights of emergency vehicles to deviate from basic traffic laws. That section provides, in pertinent part:
(a) The driver of an authorized emergency vehicle, when responding to an emergency call, or when in the pursuit of an actual or suspected violator of the law, or when responding to but not returning from a fire alarm, may exercise the privileges set forth in this section, but subject to the conditions herein stated.
(b) The driver of the emergency vehicle may:
. . . . .
(2) Proceed past a red or stop signal or stop sign, but only after slowing down as may be necessary for safe operation;
. . . . .
(4) Disregard regulations governing direction of movement or turning in specified directions.
(c) The exemptions herein granted to an authorized emergency vehicle shall apply only when such vehicle is making use of audible and visual signals meeting the requirements of the applicable laws of this state ...
(d) The foregoing provisions shall not relieve the driver of an authorized emergency vehicle from the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons, nor shall such provisions protect the driver from the consequences of the driver's own reckless disregard for the safety of others.
After citing § 55-8-108, the Court of Appeals noted that, in accordance with subsection (c), Officer Matlock had turned on her siren and blue lights before driving in the westbound lane of traffic; the Court also noted that the officer executed this undisputedly legal maneuver at a relatively low rate of speed, in accordance with the mandate of subsection (b)(2). The Court concluded from this that Officer Matlock did not breach the duty...
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